TUBERCULOSIS AS AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGIC FACTOR 1 97 



Enforced segregation of consumptives is unwise in that it makes 

 the consumptive, in the eyes of his fellows, as one unclean. It is 

 certainly not necessary for the protection of the public to keep con- 

 sumptives away from the rest of the population. All that is neces- 

 sary is to see that the consumptive is properly educated and that the 

 pubHc is made familiar with the dangers of the disease and the means 

 of avoiding these dangers. In families where ignorance and indiffer- 

 ence prevail, it may be necessary to remove the consumptive to some 

 place where he can do no harm. This is a condition that would 

 seldom arise were education in matters concerning sanitary science 

 and hygiene to become universal. In some quarters there is now an 

 unreasoning fear of tuberculosis which it should be the business of 

 intelligent people to combat. 



Marriage of Persons with Tuberculosis. — A social problem of 

 much complexity is the question of marriage of consumptives. If 

 young people were attracted only by the healthy and strong of the 

 opposite sex, there would be no problem to be considered in this 

 paragraph. Unfortunately, social position and wealth have so long 

 been important factors in the making of marriages, that the attributes 

 which should naturally attract seem to have lost much of their force. 



The marriage of the tuberculous should certainly not be pro- 

 hibited by law. The intimate relation of husband and wife may be 

 maintained without the tuberculous member of the pair infecting 

 the other; in such families healthy children may be reared. On the 

 other hand, the natural weakness which originally permits a parent 

 to take the disease is Ukely to be transmitted to the offspring and the 

 children thus be particularly susceptible. In many families children 

 have been known to acquire the disease from the parents. If one 

 of the parents is tubercular the children may be weakHngs. When 

 the question is examined impartially, any thinking man or woman 

 is likely to decide that it is unwise to marry one who has the disease 

 in the active form. In regard to those in whom there has been full 

 and complete recovery with no relapse in many years, there need be 

 no fear. With merely arrested cases it is well to remember that they 

 may develop at a later time into the active form. 



